# Rotter (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/rotter/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from German.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 2,121 |
| US rank (2010) | 14,160 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 145,566 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.6% (1,971 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a German surname, variant of Rother. * Also as a German surname, from Middle High German rotte (“gang, team”) (see modern rotten (“to gang up”)). * As a Slovene surname, Americanized or Germanized from Rotar, from dialectal rote (“clearing in the uplands”), itself from Old High German rût; see modern roden (“to clear land”). * As an English surname, variant of Rutter.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Rotter in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3% |
| Two or more races | 1.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Rotter in the United States, Argentina and Austria.

## People named Rotter

- Julian B. Rotter, American psychologist (1916–2014)
- Ariel Rotter, Argentine film director
- Fritz Rotter, Austrian composer and author (1900–1984)

## Similar surnames

Ritter, Rutter, Roeder, Roder, Riter, Rother, Routhier, Reeder, Rider, Rader, Ryder, Reiter.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.